Energy Finance Transactions

• Semester: Spring 2024
• Course ID: 296W
• Credit Hours: 2
• Unique: 28685

Description

Title:  Energy Finance and Transactions

Catalogue Description:  Highly relevant for any lawyer in energy or finance practice, this course will immerse students in practical business and legal concepts inherent in oil and gas financing by teaching a working knowledge based on actual loan documents relevant to financial and M&A transactions. Through discussion of actual loan provisions, the class will demonstrate how the client’s business concepts are manifested in the financing documents drafted by lawyers.  In addition, the course will provide a historical context of the dependent relationship between producers and bankers illustrating the evolution of loan documentation from the early beginnings of the US oil industry through current times.

This course will provide students a head-start on their transactional legal training by providing students with useful knowledge on energy transactions and financing documentation. Students will learn the basic architecture of financing documents, and, importantly, learn the legal and business issues and historical foundation behind the provisions. The professors, who collectively have over 60 years of energy lending experience, will also provide their insight on energy lending negotiation strategy. In addition to class participation and the final exam, students will complete a short client memorandum on a topic of their choice related to the energy finance transactions.

Grading: Students will be graded on class participation (20%), client memorandum (30%) and final exam (50%).

The final exam will be a timed, short answer open-book format exam.

Prerequisites: 1L contracts and property. The professors are accustomed to training associates with no exposure to oil and gas or finance.

Credit Hours:  Two hours.

Proposed Schedule:  12 weeks, consisting of 12 two-hour classes. 

Learning Outcomes:  Students will gain an understanding of basic principles of energy lending and energy transactions, and how those principals are embodied in loan documentation.  In addition to the practical substantive knowledge, students will gain insight into a career path.  This course is tailored for students interested in pursuing a career in sophisticated energy transactions of all types.  Students who have already chosen this career path will be better prepared, having completed part of the training of a first-year associate.